L'Isola Felice Castellana Grotte

... shouldn't have taken the first agent's word for it. Seemed to be ships sailing at all hours - must surely have been one with space on it overnight? Definitely the only way to do this route.However, we get by: but I wouldn't recommend Ventourist line: cheap, for sure; but tacky -very, very tacky!Another night in an anonymous port.

... on the show. One of the homicide detectives, Ed Burns, is co-creator of The Wire. You get the idea. It's a great finale for anyone who's finished the show and is suffering from withdrawal (for anyone who hasn't watched the show, DO SO NOW).

I bought Homicide at a Waterstones attached to one of those Little Chef rest stops the weekend Rachel, Sundeep and I rented and drove a car to the Cotswolds ...

... was another accident, and guess who it was... yep the hatchback with the kid lying across the back window!!

These people are lunitics on the road, plain and simple!! Or then of course there were the enormous piles of rubbish on the side of the road, one of which self combusted in the heat and was smoking with flames!!! A totally different part of Italy to what we had seen days earlier!

Anyway we make it to Bari in time to board the overnight ferry ...

... a taxi that you haven't called. Jyles insisted though.
I checked the locks on the doors before I got in, and made sure I could escape. It was legitimate, but in a normal situation I would have said no.

We got to the ferry terminal just on time. Since it was an overnight ferry, we got bunk beds and had an awesome sleep.

... Dan got a map of Pompeii and we saw like 1/16 of the ruin! I was dissapointed we couldn't see more but Enzo did say that it would take 2 days to see all of the ruin. The bus ride from Pompeii to Bari was a few hours, we stop for a snack/lunch/toilet break after a few hours. Dan and I had a calzone and a drink, we bought some onion pretzels, pepsi and paprika italian pringles for munchies on the ferry.
We made the ferry on time ...

... hire a car! We had decided to travel around the region rather than staying in one place, so we could really get a feel for what it was like. The further we drove from Bari and the Puglia border, the higher we rose, the wilder and more beautiful the scenery became. Basilicata is the most mountainous as well as the least known region of southern Italy. We found out before we came that tourism is not big in Basilicata, although Italians ...

... also on the train (we ended up seeing them again later). They were an Australian couple.

We took our final train to Bari. When we got there we ran into 3 other back packers who happened to be from (believe it or not) SPOKANE, WASHINGTON!!! Unbelievable.

We took a bus to the ferry terminal, booked our ferry ride. Went back to the city for dinner and to get food for ...

My friends and I stayed at this bed and breakfast in Mola just south of Bari. It was the best yet. Large old English style accomodations, we stayed in an apartment with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, large veranda overlooking the main street. It even had a full kitchen. The breakfast was the best we have experienced. It is worth the trip just for the accomodations. A nice beach area with breath taking views is just 10 minutes south in Polignano.

A must see for those off the tourist path.

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... toasted sandwiches are good. The red and white bunting that covered the old town was not as I had first hoped an expression of solidarity with the plight of Southampton Football Club, but referred rather to the fact that AS Bari had just clinched promotion to Serie A.    That evening we boarded the ferry and from the aft deck watched the sun set over western europe that we won't see again for a year.